


10 Letters

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: F/M, Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 07:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of letters from Slade to the people in his life</p>
            </blockquote>





	10 Letters

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2007, now put into one post

September, 1964

Dear Addie, 

Bribing a friendly I can trust to get this into the mail bag without being censored. Truly wish you were here. Our superiors are still fighting World War Two, when this is a whole new arena. Even Korea was more civilized than the butchery going on from both sides.

I'd go into details, but even the parts I can see aren't falling together into a solid pattern. Heard my old friend, Major Wintergreen, is somewhere in theater, though. Once I connect with him, I'll have his eye on it, and it might make more sense.

I do hope you are getting pictures taken as our child is growing. I'd love to see what I'm missing, even as I know you understand. Not being there when our baby, and I do feel deep in my gut it will be a son, takes his first breath is going to be a small regret, but our country truly needs me here. It's what I was born to do, what you helped shape me to do.

Contact like this won't come often, wife, as I'm already angling to get into one of the more guerrilla outfits. This nonsense of stand up fighting is not going to win us anything, and I'm better off out there in the jungles with a small team, not with a platoon. God forbid, but they tried to stick me with a damn company!

If you need help with the pregnancy or the baby, use that contact point I gave you for Frannie. She might be a pistol of a woman, but she won't turn my wife away.

With my shield or on it, wife...

Yours,  
Slade

* * *

January 1976

Wintergreen,

I do commend your efforts to establish this new enterprise of mine. You bring resources that I was lacking in, as I did not wish to involve Adeline directly with this. Or, more correctly, I am under the impression Adeline's days of wishing to be in the thick of it seem to be over. As content as she is with our two sons, I do not say I blame her. It is merely that I am a man intended only to be the best at what I am, and that thing is barred to me through normal channels.

That said, I would like to point out that I am having more difficulty spacing these things to satisfy the itch than I anticipated. Perhaps we can increase the enterprise by at least another ten percent? I do not want to risk my family by not having enough time between events, but there is only so much I can take of the social life Addie insists we have. I love her still and would do much for her or our sons, but the fakery of standing in the social circles our ranks have brought us to is...annoying.

On more personal notes, your godson has grown another inch. He delighted everyone at the party we held the other night with a very clear performance in that soprano of his. His accompaniment on the piano was perfectly timed; Addie is of the mind he might well be a child-prodigy in voice and music. Grant, of course, was surly over the extra attention it brought his brother.

Until I see you in the Congo, old friend.

Slade

* * *

February 1979

My Dear Frannie,

It was good to see you again last month. Addie enjoyed the break from riding Grant for his ridiculousness. In all honesty, I am growing tired of his constant rebellions against her, against common decency within the family.

I know I am at least partly to blame. Gone so long when he was little, and now busy with my other pursuits. How did you find the time to look after us? When I am home, it is all I can do to keep up with both boys' pursuits and what Addie wishes of me.

The visit had an inevitable result. Addie has decided come the fall, Grant is to go to boarding school. A military prep academy. I cannot fault that choice; he needs solid discipline, and I am not home often enough, nor is she able to focus solely on him at Joey's expense. Truthfully, I'm not sure that sending him to stay with you for a summer might not have an even better outcome, but they are her sons.

Do write, tell me what you think on the matter of headstrong children. You must have some tips to share, to help us get to the point of Grant leaving for school.

My regards,  
Slade

* * *

March 1985

Grant,

I will never understand what drove you to the lengths you went. For the first time, I find myself at odds with your mother's opinion of what you boys needed to know. If you had only been aware of who Deathstroke was, maybe things would have gone differently.

I would rather have lived with your hatred for me, as your mother hates me, than to know you were lost.

Second guesses are for lesser men, though. You've left me in an untenable place, my son. Your contract must be completed, and yet in its very inception, there was treachery. You were used, I have no doubt. One day I will discover how the HIVE linked you to me, knew you were the right leverage to apply.

But, for now, I must collect my resources, find the intelligence I need. I won't let your last mission go unfulfilled; your shade, if such things exist, deserves the peace of completion. 

The Titans will fall, the contract will be filled to the letter, and then I may move on, secure in knowing our word is still our bond.

Your father

_Slade sat back, looked at the words he had written, and then drew the ash tray close. A few moments later, and the words were nothing more than smoke and ash._

* * *

August 1989

Joe,

It's been awhile since I had a moment to drop you a note. Wintergreen gave me a sound chewing for this lack, but you understand. Business concerns aside, you know I would not neglect to tell you of anything truly important.

I am given to understand that you have spoken even more of the girl in your letters to your godfather than in the ones to me, son. It would seem you feel you have found that one great love, if you but have the patience to win her over. 

All I can say to that, is take your time and be careful, my son. Love is a treacherous battleground, and sometimes it is not enough. I am not seeking to deter you; I only wish you to be careful. The girl is a most intriguing young lady, and well-matched to you, I believe. I can only imagine your mother's impressions of her. Wintergreen has given you his advice by now, droll and dry as it might have been.

I will be in town soon, not long after you receive this letter. Dinner, if you are able, would be a pleasant change of pace from the usual interference into Titans' business, wouldn't you say?

Your father,  
Slade

* * *

September 1991

Nightwing,

There's not much to say anymore. You shouldn't have to watch over your shoulder, though, wondering where I am. I owe him that much, so much more beyond, but...

I've gone home. As I said I would. To try and find a way to move past it. To find who I am now, what season my life is entering now that fatherhood is stripped of me.

Why must it always be ashes with mine? I can't even have the closure of a proper ceremony for this son, either. 

Adeline is furious. She learned...before I could find the way to say it. You'd do well to guard yourself, your teammates from her fury. She blames me, but that brush of guilt can paint wide strokes.

Don't turn your loss inward, Kid. Don't give up everything you were in my son's eyes because of what happened.

He'd hate that. 

So would I...

Slade

* * *

July 1993,

Logan,

I never wanted what happened in Qurac. I don't know if you've spoken to Harper since it all happened, if you got the official version, or the real one as he perceived it.

I'm sick to my stomach, still, thinking about the loss of life, the devastation. It was all complicated by not being able to just go home to Kenya, as I had originally planned. Wintergreen had gotten caught up in it. 

That, my young friend, is why I keep you at such an arm's distance. Though our letters do bring a smile to my lips, you are better off away from this life I lead. After all, you are a true Titan, with all the altruistic nonsense inherent in that. 

Your friend,  
S.

* * *

February 2000,

Harper,

Tell me, Harper. Is she the force of nature you think she is? Does she take you to every extreme of human emotion possible, burning you in her passion? Or has that ardor that she showed me, when she used us both, cooled as violently as it once burned?

Are you happy with the witch you were so willing to condemn my wife for?

Addie deserved the chance. She was a good woman. Not someone who murdered hundreds of thousands of people just to make a statement. She was a mother who went to great lengths for her children. Not a woman who tried to use her daughter to have a hold on the father. She was a soldier, a teacher, and a woman who was a true force of nature when she felt the need to. Not someone who had to take a suicide deal to get out of prison.

Think on that, every time you see me, and know that one day, I will have an accounting on her behalf.

D.

* * *

March 2001

Dear Rose,

I am aware of your continued anger with me over events. I have accepted your choice to live with the foster family found for you with true relief. It was always your mother's wish that my life not impact yours, and yet it has, in tragedy and chaos.

I never would have wished prophetic dreams on you. As weary as it is for me to face the future's inevitability, I still have no urge to know it in advance.

Do not let the rift between us keep you from Wintergreen. He has been my good friend for years, but believe me when I say he will put your welfare ahead of mine. 

I am your father, though, Kitten, and I acknowledge what that entails between us. If you have need of me, Wintergreen is your best choice to make me aware of it. Don't hesitate to use this option.

Your father,   
Slade

* * *

July 2002

Dinah,

Sister, you do know how to make losing out to Fyres a loss I can handle. That trip back to the states was an experience to remember. And the information tip you scored off your partner to give to me was appreciated. I've already managed to make up my losses.

The question I have for you is whether you'd like to join me in Monte Carlo next month. I have business there...nothing to strain your fragile sense of the right thing to do...and could use an attractive woman who won't shoot me in the foot while I handle the deal.

If it's up your alley, just drop me a message at the number...the one I tucked in your inner pocket that last morning. Better hurry; if you're not free I might just have to sweet talk Selina into remembering she owes me a favor.

S.


End file.
